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As teachers I think we should have the obligation to at least direct students to professional help and resources. Even if you yourself cannot provide help, support is huge.

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Some may not like dogs or are allergic but I do believe that animals can help mental health such as cats, or horses.

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Those statistics Victoria presented are alarming, I think it shows that something is definitely wrong with how mental health is treated in our schools.

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I love the idea of therapy dogs; it could even be used as a behavioral reward for issues. Such as you get to go see the dog at the end of the day.

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The reptiles we had in the science room weren’t therapy pets I don’t think but they were very popular with students who we knew struggled more in those classes and helped them open up

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I think facilitating a creative environment in general allows for a lot of expression in school. Even if you don't like dogs there should still be outlets to create a safe environment that allows for expression

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I do believe that having some sort of animal that can help with mental health can really help. it is their way of not wanting to consider suicide.

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I believe that animals are a very big part in a lot of peoples life. But what happens for the people that do not like animals or may be even scared of animals? What can we do for those people?

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Has anyone had a bad experience with mental health in and school that anyone would like to share?

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The fact that some parents would rather have their kids suffer with their emotions than have someone there to help them.

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Would you include SEL in school as a specific class or prefer it incorporated into lessons?

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We can't teach students if they aren't here. Mental health is so important and in order to teach them properly they need to be in a good mental space. Incorporating a daily activity to teach SEL is a great idea.

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It is so hard that social emotional learning has such a stigma. It can be really frustrating for students and educators when parents stigmatize getting help. I really agree with Deja that they might not get the extra help outside of school because of how their parents feel about mental health.

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There are many benefits to social-emotional learning. This allows students to take a break from academics and express themselves in a different way. They can learn more about themselves and build character.

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Emotional regulation is a tool that should be taught because it bleeds into everything else people do in their day to day life. Emotions impact everything, so at least offering support and education on how to properly manage themselves

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I was raised by my grandparents and mental health days were not a thing on their minds. They did not understand the stress I was going through and that was really hard for me.

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I think everyone should be able to express their thoughts and feelings and not feeling like they can't share those things

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I agree with Deja, if you spend even just 20 minutes a day for students learning and talking about SEL, this may be their only outlet. I think it is important to let them experience emotions and talk about these emotions.

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Do teachers have the right to teach SEL to students who have parents who disagree? Should we provide choices?

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I feel that is important for teachers to understand some students don't want therapy but just an adult they trust

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one school recourses for therapy counselors, do you think they do enough for the students and their mental health?

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My mom is in a constant mental battle dealing with childhood traumas and depression, my younger brother is showing symptoms too now and has always been a quiet/reserved kid. I personally don’t think I’m majorly affected by that but it’s hard sometimes having to try and mediate with it all because neither one wants to seek help for different reasons

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I do agree with Mik with children and their parents or just adults going to therapy will help the family dynamic. I also believe therapy will also help them be the best person they will be.

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I really like Calex's comparison of SEL going to the doctor's vs. health class. Nowhere in SEL is there the idea that you are sitting down with individual students and having them dive deep into their trauma. You provide baseline information that they can apply to their own situations.

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i think that going to therapy to some people is embarrassing but in reality going to talk to someone about what is going in your life is very important. Some of the time the person that dealing with mental health don't feel like they can talk with their parents about what is going and they feel like their parents will see them in a different way. I personal i have not had a bad run with mental health, but i have a had a friend who had really bad mental health and he thought that he could not reach out to anyone about it, so he decided to take his life when he was 16. i do believe that people so get some help whether it be a counselor at the school or a therapist.

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What if schools had trained therapists for both parents and teachers to train them in how to be there for the kids, as well as giving them licensed support when they are struggling?

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How can we make students feeling more comfortable talking to concelors at school?

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I agree with Bri, especially when it comes to a big school. Many times counselors didn't know students'names in high school.

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As a teacher, a good sign that you've succeeded is if your students feel like they can confide in you and you shouldn't break that trust

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To what extent should teachers be forced to practice confidentiality with students with regards to mental health?

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My school has a therapist, but the school never really highlighted it. If the school is going to hire one they need to advertise it more so kids know that someone is there for them.

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I want to bring up mental diseases like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder. I feel it wasn't talked enough about in school that people don't undusted the harm they can do to the body and mind.

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I was always scared to go to my counselor because as soon as I walked in to talk to her, she warned me that whatever I said may or may not be mentioned to my parents or other people if serious enough. So i never wanted to come out about how i was feeling because i didn't want everyone knowing my personal feelings or business and only wanted to that one person to know just so I could get it off my chest.

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I think that expressing your thoughts is important but I also have not had great experiences with going to therapy. When covid-19 hit I developed very bad anxiety and OCD and my mom said i needed to talk to someone besides only family members and my therapist said very odd things to me and made me uncomfortable and i ended up not going to her anymore and i just didn't feel like i could express what I was really feeling

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I think it's important for schools to have trained therapists rather than trying to have a school counselor or teacher to help students with problems that are beyond their knowledge. I can imagine that it would be difficult for counselors or teachers to help students work through problems they aren't trained on.

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I personally feel that it SEL should be incorporated into lessons because some students need it but are too scared to sign up for a class and some schools can't afford to add an elective class such as SEL

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I completely agree with Deja, I think that making someone talk about their emotions is hard. I personally don't show my emotions a lot and it's hard for me to open up.

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I think that adding a mental health standard into a health class is a good idea because I feel like with some mental illnesses people don't want to admit that they need help or maybe they don't even see it. So with the information from the class I think it could help students identify when they need help.

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Agreed with Ashlynne. A lot of times parents are their children's first bully and that's exactly why we need SEL learning in schools.

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At the daycare I work at we do afternoon activity where we work on social emotional skills and recognizing our individual feelings. I have seen lots of growth in the children's self-reflection and emotional regulation. They know when it's time for them to take a break and cool down.

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Going off of what Spencer and Arianna said I think it should be added to a health class. This way they can learn about the topic, without talking about their own feelings, but getting the information they need.

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In my high school we didn’t really talk about sex ed but in middle school we did talk about it and there were permission forms and all that stuff and I vividly remember that about half of my class had their parents say their students couldn’t be around for those lessons. I think the alternative for that was to go hang out in the gym for the duration of those classes.

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What do you guys think about self-diagnosing? Do you think it can be helpful or hurtful? Can teaching students these tools promote diagnosing themselves?

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The pressure on a teacher when a student opens up to them with issues outside the classroom is immense. A teacher is already busy and mentally occupied with teaching, so having to consider the mental health of all your students puts a considerable amount more pressure upon them. Having specific professionals to help with issues outside education is important

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To go back to what Cade said, I think that it is important to include SEL skills throughout lesson plans (and you don't need to explicitly say they are SEL skills). While this may not provide the full level of content that a class would, it would show skill application while still respecting parental rights

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"this was never a thing when i was a kid" It was always there. It just wasn't diagnosed yet. People did not JUST start struggling, there is just so much more research that goes into it now. Nobody is just this, or just that, there are so many layers to being a person.

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I think maybe explianing to certain parents who don't fully understand can help. Obviously not all parents are going to be reasonable, but some might be. Some parents might just be misinformed and if you explain why SELs are important.

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I think some parents pull their kids out of a sex ed or mental health class because some parents dont believe their children can be depressed or have depression so they become ignorant to the fact teachers are teaching kids about what mental health wellness is because they just dont want to acknowledge the fact that depression is a real thing.

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I agree with Calix, if it is a required class they may dread going. But I also disagree because if they have a choice they may never learn the information that could impact them and help them. This also avoids getting bullied for taking an optional class.

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I think all students should be required to take a mental health class. If a parent pulls a student from that class then I think it is a insecurity that the parent has or that they don't know how to teach mental health to their own kids and they are scared about that topic.

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I work at a school where we have both a counselor and a trained therapist. Both are very busy all the time. I can't imagine if all the stress was put on just the counselor, who isn't trained or educated on how to help students with the problems that the therapist deals with.

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After school activities aren't always accessible to everyone, though

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I agree with Calix, as soon as some kids hear "requirement" they groan. They end up not taking everything seriously because they hate that the class has to be required.

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Victoria - did you parents know that you felt these feelings? Did you talk to them about it?

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At the daycare that i work we incorporate SEL in the classroom. We read books with the children about emotions and try and see their reflections. Most of the time the students don't exactly understand why we have these emotions, so we work with the children to teach them why we have these emotions and how that can be really helpful to them when they go to kindergarten and see all of these emotions.

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I think kids sometimes see things that aren't very true that they think that they are true

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I love when Mik highlighted that we are all human.

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At what age should we introduce the heavier topics of mental health?

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I think that having a designated Mental Health Week may allow students to isolate and avoid the topic instead of integrating the subject into lessons year-round

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Going off of what Mik said; no ones soul is inherently more valuable than another. We all have the opportunity to impact one another and it's our choice if we are going to be a positive or a negative impact. I think its really important to teach kids how to be vulnerable and how to be there for one another because we are all going through life together and no one should feel the need to close themselves off because of the fear of judgment.

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The only thing that really happened at my school for mental health was when it was the month celebration. Then during that month we'd talk about related things in homeroom. But otherwise, there wasn't really anything done.

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I think it's important we incorporate mental health assemblies into lower grades too. My sister recieved an award for being a hero because she went to one of the teachers and told him that a boy in her class was threatening suicide, so implimenting mental health to young children is important because they deserve to know what feelings are and how to handle them too.

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There needs to always be recognition on mental health because at some point close to everyone will struggle with their mental health. We are in the generation today where we are just starting to put more emphasis on mental health but there's so much work that needs done. Some educators tend to be timid/cautious to discuss it because either the don't care, they don't want to step on anyones toes, or they simply don't know how to discuss it.

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I think talking about mental health early with students will help prevent them from not knowing what it is. It would help them know how to identify their own feelings and how to proceed with that or to help them be better and more successful.

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I think the smaller school situation is different based on how close the community is, I feel as it is more positive with sharing how important mental health is based off how connected students and staff are.

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Going back to how to incorporate SEL learning, it should not be a class because if it is required students will dread it, if it is optional they may be bullied, what if it was a before or after school thing? Not necessarily a group or a club, but could this help?

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I feel like we put so much pressure on to teachers. You wonder why a lot of teachers quit after a couple of years.

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According to my cousins, mental health is rarely talked about in schools. It's not just an Iowa thing, it's a country thing.

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I think incorporating therapy into a curriculum in school should not be limited to in school programs. I work for the Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County which is a non-profit family oriented service provider. A few services provided are offsite counseling, food stamps, and afterschool care. It’s not just in school services that should be used.

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I disagree with Calix's point just because students are more successful with their core subjects when they are taught SEL skills. How successful do you think a student will be in remembering what they learn if they are feeling persistent hopelessness (which was 44% of students in 2021).

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Therapy dogs has their pros and cons to being in the classroom with students. The environment I work in right now with students the therapy dog would be good for them to regulate outside of the classroom. The dog being available to them in the classroom will cause distractions. The school should be responsible for the mental health of their students because we are responsible for the students when they are at school so we are also responsible for their mental health.